language, delicate

Language feels so delicate sometimes
writing sentences is the worst thing you can do

so then you do it anyway just
a couple lines then you

realize it's not language, delicate,
it's you.

Missed St. Patrick's Day

There once was a fella from Toronto

Who wanted St. Paddy's Day pronto

But he himmed and he hawed

And eventually maud-

lin That poor auld fella from Toronto

Return

Crisp light. High Park sub

way station. Hawkish circles.

Cherry blossoms bloom.

MLK

you say the good defeated

is better than evil

triumphant

?

but then

who is left to

turn the hour glass

after notes from underground

great

you know
great

but all I've seen since the crash
is a redefinition of what it means to be

working class

Spring fever

I have an allegory

maybe to authority

it's not serious

just pollen in the air

The Fern Cat by Remedios Varo

Ascension

What if poetry was the first revolution
only to be checked by prose?

What if writing meant enslavement
the icon signified the state?

What if producing and consuming
words

for/against

In Labrador some say they're for Muskrat Falls
to mean they want to save a river.
In Newfoundland some say they're for Muskrat Falls
to mean they want to build a dam.

Is that just dissonance
or the cost of having to be for or against?

PA-NL.CA

Crow 2012

yesterday I was full of happiness and today I am rich in gold
yesterday I took a snip of wind and today I walk with broken wings

forgive me

it's the postmodern way

I do as they do
not as they say

what trickster said

all law springs from lawlessness
all order springs from discontent

it's a double hook
and there's a policeman in my head

paid from the rich man's pocket
to keep the poor man's politics

from spilling over the dam